What will win the X Factor of web services?
I heard the news today. Oh boy. Local councils say that the credit crunch is starting to hit them: rising fuel and food bills are eating into their budgets, and making it harder for them to provide the services that they want to. This piqued my interest because I’ve spent the past 48 hours trying to get the entries sorted out for you – and anyone else you know – to vote on from the government’s Show Us A Better Way competition, which I guess you could call the government’s X Factor for Web Services. This is a preliminary round – rather like the bit where some of the most tuneful and tuneless appear on the stage, and Simon Cowell rolls a pen around in his mouth before saying things like “That was simply the worst audition I have ever seen, bar none.” Except that you all get to play the Simon Cowell – or Louis Walsh, or Cheryl Cole, or Dannii Minogue – part. It’s an open vote to pick the ones that then go to the next stage, where a few ones will be argued over. (Yes, all right, Boot Camp
